May 14 (Reuters) - U.S. stocks rose on Monday on signs of easing trade tensions between the United States and China after President Donald Trump softened his stance on Chinese technology company ZTE Corp.

Trump on Sunday pledged to help ZTE “get back into business, fast” nearly a month after the United States banned American companies from selling to the firm for violating an agreement.

Trump’s comments came ahead of trade talks between the two countries this week as they look to resolve the escalating trade dispute.

“At the moment, the market is breathing a sigh of relief that some of the fears over tariffs and inflation, in particular, have not been realized,” said Mike Baele, managing director at U.S. Bank Private Client Wealth Management in Portland, Oregon.

“We are still not out of the woods, but it hasn’t escalated. The market is seeing it as a positive.”

Shares of some of the biggest suppliers to ZTE, including Acacia Communications, Oclaro and Lumentum Holdings, rose between 10.6 percent and 3.1 percent.

At 12:53 p.m. ET, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 102.65 points, or 0.41 percent, at 24,933.82, the S&P 500 was up 5.79 points, or 0.21 percent, at 2,733.51 and the Nasdaq Composite was up 28.55 points, or 0.39 percent, at 7,431.43.

The defensive utilities, telecoms and real estate were the only three losers among the major S&P sectors, while technology and healthcare indexes were the biggest boosts.

Energy stocks were the biggest percentage gainers, rising 0.8 percent as oil rose after OPEC reported that the global oil glut has been virtually eliminated.

“There is renewed vigor in the energy sector around the belief that maybe oil prices can stay up this time. That’s something new that the markets had not been playing,” said John Augustine, chief investment officer at Huntington Bank in Columbus, Ohio.